Sometimes no publicity is good publicity, but it's too late for that for Lincoln, Nebraska shop-owner Christian Firoz. Firoz runs Exotica, a Lincoln boutique, and back in March, as the Nebraska legislature was pondering legislation that would ban salvia (it died without a vote), Firoz was quoted in a March Lincoln Journal-Star article about an up-tick in interest in the fast-acting, short-lived hallucinogen after the ban effort received local news coverage.

salvia leaves

That resulted in a visit from undercover officers from the Lincoln police, who purchased salvia at the shop, then returned with arrest and search warrants. Firoz was charged not with selling salvia, but with violating a state law against selling substances "which will induce an intoxicated condition ...when the seller, offerer or deliverer knows or has reason to know that such compound is intended for use to induce such condition."

That prompted Firoz' attorney, Susan Kirchmann, to seek dismissal of the charges, arguing that the law is so vague ordinary people can't understand what is prohibited and must guess at its meaning. But the state countered that Firoz was not selling cleaning chemicals with no idea they were to be used to get high. Instead, he was knowingly selling salvia his purchasers would use to become intoxicated, they argued.

Last week, Lancaster County Judge Gale Pokorny sided with the prosecution. In a September 10 order, Pokorny ruled that Firoz must stand trial because he knew what he was selling.

"This judge is of the opinion that Mr. Christian Firoz knew precisely that the Salvia Divinorum he was selling was a 'substance' his purchasers were buying intended for human ingestion for the sole purpose of achieving mind altering intoxication," Pokorny wrote.

"While there may be others who potentially might be caught up in some confusing terminology contained in these two statutes, Mr. Christian Firoz does not appear to be one of them."

Firoz will go on trial for unlawfully selling a legal substance next month. He faces up to three months in jail and a $500 fine. Meanwhile, the first prosecution of anyone on salvia charges anywhere in the United States is set for next week in Bismarck, North Dakota, where at last word, Kenneth Rau was set to go to trial Monday on felony salvia possession charges.

Do they charge bar owners in Nebraska for selling jager bombs and beer? The intent of the 22 year old college student at a bar on Friday is to get drunk or put different 'to buy substances that will induce an intoxicated condition.' Similarly the bar owner is selling these substances with the knowledge that they will likely be ingested for the purposes of inducing an intoxicated condition.

YES! I agree, exactly! They should spend their time catching real criminals....like sex offenders who still can roam on campus playgrounds with hardly any "Collateral Consequences" like these so BAD and VIOLENT drug dealers can!

If you google "christian firoz" the first page up should be
his florida sex offender registry.
He has quite a reputation in Lincoln, but the stories say
he's more for the high school girls. This guy pisses me off
when he hides behind the drug war and tries to act like he's
a hero. Yeah, and he probably would sell to minors, as well as
drug their drinks.

I'm totally for leaving Salvia legal as a cognitive liberty issue, but Mr. Firoz is obviously just in it for the money. Why else would he say he thinks it should now be illegal because the law is too "confusing"? Here's the college paper article quoting him:

The law in Nebraska says it bans the sale of any substance that a person intends to use to get "intoxicated" (with alcohol specifically exempted).
It looks like it's an early drug war "catch all". As best I can tell, no one has EVER been prosecuted in Nebraska under this law.
The part that gets me the most? The local police department read the newspaper article, then researched their best to come up with a crime they could charge my client with because they "KNEW" there had to be something illegal about it. I find that part chilling.
SusanK

That's awesome!! Throw his ass in jail. He knew exactly what he was selling and what it was for. Don't try to insult everyone's, including the legal system's, intelligence by pretending not to know what salvia is for. IT IS USED TO GET HIGH, plain and simple. He was probably one of the jokers who sell salvia under the guise of "incense". Yeah, right, we're all believing that one.
Good going Nebraska coppers!

"While there may be others who potentially might be caught up in some confusing terminology contained in these two statutes, Mr. Christian Firoz does not appear to be one of them."

The judge is intentionally misinterpreting the argument the defense is making. Christian Firoz knew that the salvia was being used for intoxication. He was not confused about that. However, what Firoz's attourney was claiming was that people are confused about the law.

"The case law from both the United States and Nebraska Supreme Court clearly supports defendant's assertion that certain criminal statutes can be "void for vagueness". But the Nebraska Supreme Court has qualified who may assert such a claim --- who has the "standing" to assert such a claim ---by repeatedly setting forth that a person who wishes to challenge a statute as "void for vagueness" must not engage in conduct clearly prohibited by the questioned statute."

Who the hell would challenge a statute other than a person being prosecuted for it? If a person is not allowed to challenge a statute because they are guilty, then that goes against the principle of "innocent until proven guilty".

Is the Nebraska Supreme Court being constitutional in qualifying who may challenge a statute and who may not?

Were I this man's laywer, I'd respond to this by immediately filing charges against all the pharmacys, resteraunts, grocery stores and bars in the state. In fact, if Frioz is convicted, it would provide precedent to push those charges through and either expose the major flaw in the law, or turn the whole state's judicial system into a circus.

SO, selling salvia isn't illegal. But "selling substances "which will induce an intoxicated condition ...when the seller, offerer or deliverer knows or has reason to know that such compound is intended for use to induce such condition." is?

Just knowing your customer is going to "ingest the substance in order to alter their state of mind" and selling a substance that will, is?

What about the ones who sell alcohol? ALCOHOL IS A DRUG. And every seller, knows, or should know, that the customer WILL INGEST THIS SUBSTANCE and the effect WILL BE AN INTOXICATED CONDITION.

I've been reading articles all day about the criminalization of salvia and I cannot believe how naive some people are. Salvia IS NOT a widespread problem you motherfuckers! In facty, I don't believe it to be a problem at all. So stop focusing your energy on banning substances that have no reported causes of death (like marijuana) and maybe look at the bigger picture, people abusing the use of alcohol.